Showing posts with label Personal Memories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Personal Memories. Show all posts

Friday 10 August 2018

An Earlston Legacy from a Czech Army Officer in 1944.

In 1944, Czech Army Officer, Milos Novak, was billeted with a family in Earlston.  He was a talented artist and he gifted to  the family this charming pen and ink drawing of the Charles Bridge in Prague, and a oil-painting of the view from his wartime Earlston home, looking onto the Black Hill.






The two families remained in touch  after the war and  it was known that Milos had emigrated with his own family to Montreal in Canada around 1948, but contact was lost  in 1965.

Efforts are now being made to trace any of Milos’ descendants in Canada to make them aware of his art work and the fact that he is still remembered in Earlston.


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This lovely wartime story emerged as part of Auld Earlston’s activities in gathering memories from local residents, in preparation for its exhibition on the theme “Earlston at War and Peace:  1914-1949”, to be held in the Church Hall on October 20th and 21st. The accompanying slide show, which is always a popular draw, will include the showing of a short  film on Earlston in the 1930’s.

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Monday 30 July 2018

Land Girls Remembered

B.'s account of her Life as an Earlston Land Girl at Georgefield Farm, 1944-45 evoked a lot of interest when it was published recently on the Auld Earlston blog.

Since then two related photographs have come to light:



Land Girls gathering in Earlston for work on local farms  
during the Second World War. 


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 The monument to the Land Army and the Timber Corps 
at the National Memorial Arboretum, near Lichfield, Staffordshire.


The Arboretum is a 150 acre woodland site that stands as a scenic commemoration to British servicemen and women with nearly 300 different memorials.  

During the Second World War The Land Army and the Timber Corps directed women to fill the places in agriculture and forestry to replace the men called up into the armed forces.   At first volunteers were sought. but  then numbers  were increased by conscription.   By 1944 the Women's Land Army  had over 80,000 members across Britain.   It was officially disbanded in 1949. 

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Do you have any wartime photographs or memories, or ones passed down to you from your parents or grandparents on life in the village during the war.  

If so, do please get in touch, as we would like to hear from you. Items will be copied and returned to you, and may be featured in our forthcoming exhibition in October. 


Contact:  E-Mail:  auldearlston@aol.com 

THANK YOU 

Wednesday 20 June 2018

Life as an Earlston Land Girl

Auld Earlston is  currently gathering memories from local residents on their war memories or those passed down by  their parents and grandparents - in preparation for the  forthcoming October Exhibition on the theme of "Earlston at War and Peace".
We are grateful to B. who has given us here  a vivid account of life as a land girl at Georgefield Farm, Earlston in 1944-45.  

Being Called Up  
"I was living in Edinburgh, left school at 14 and was   working in a lawyer's office when I was called up in 1944.  I was given the choice of becoming a FANY - joining the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry or the Land Army.  I chose the Land Army as it was always the one organization that appealed to me.  I was delighted to be given the choice, as my sister was just conscripted into  Munitions with no alternative offered."

Working on a Poultry Farm 
"It was a huge change for me when I was sent to Georgefield  Farm in  Earlston,  looking after the large poultry section - cleaning out the hen houses, feeding the hens who were free range poultry,  and rounding them up at night to shut them  away from prowling foxes. I became strong there and could heave around 100weight sacks of meal.
We started work at 7am and finishing time depended on the time of year.  In winter we shut the hens up around 4pn but in the lighter nights, it could be midnight before we finished. After the grain was harvested,  the hens were sent into the cornfields and it took ages to get them back in the hen houses.   It was amazing what you could see in the moonlight  - we had torches but you were lucky if you could get fresh batteries for them. For those long hours,  I can never remember getting paid more than £2 a week. We had a uniform of khaki breeches, a V-necked pullover and a brimmed hat."
The view looking north from Georgefield Farm - taken in January 2018. 

Wartime Food 
 "Four or five  of us lived in a bothy on the farm and we ate well - all on the rations.  One of us took it in turns to return to the bothy to prepare our midday meal - often macaroni cheese or mince and tatties. I had not done any cooking before,  but I soon learnt on the coal stove.  A great perk was that we were allowed a dozen eggs a week, which I often saved to take back home for my weekends off.  Everyone heartily disliked  the dried eggs which were part of the staple wartime diet,  so fresh eggs were a big treat.  We never ate chicken the whole time I was there. If the chickens were sick or injured,  they were killed and put in the incinerator.  It was only after the war, I thought "Why did we never get it to cook?"

Food shopping (all on the wartime rations) was done in the village - at the grocers' shops - Willie  Park's,  Tom Bell's,  Forrest's, or Taylor's. 

We felt  we were much  luckier than the other land girls  working  on the arable crops at Georgefield.  They were based in a hostel at Bemersyde, so much more isolated than we were; they were brought to the farm in a van and had to prepare ahead their sandwiches for lunch - boringly jam, spam or cheese. "
Leisure Time
We had a good deal of freedom. as we could get easily into the village;  we went to dances, often twice a week in the Corn Exchange, and enjoyed listening  to the Polish Band.   Drink wasn't served at the dance, and it was never a problem in the village.  The evening finished with the playing of the Polish and British national anthems.
 We took the bus into Galashiels (return fare 1/6 - one shilling and sixpence).  We got every second weekend off and I  often went back home to Edinburgh  - 5/6 return (five shillings and sixpence)  on the bus. 
Sometimes on free weekends we took the bus to Carfraemill. Hotel.  5 shillings was the maximum by law that could be charged  for a meal and we would get high tea for 4/6 there - fish and chips, or ham salad, with bread, scone or a toasted  teacake. 
The whole of the war I only had two dresses which I wore alternatively. If you wanted to get a new winter coat, that took almost all your clothes rations for the year.  It helped to have a father or brother who could pass on their unwanted coupons.
"One of the girls in the bothy had a gramophone and introduced me to opera - "La Boheme" and it has remained a great love of mine.  We had no radio to find out what was going on in the world outside,  but one of us took it in turns to walk into Earlston to get a newspaper - usually the Daily Herald or Daily Express." 

A Change 
"In 1945 I was sent to a dairy farm near Chirnside.  I hated it, especially the noise of the milking machines. We had a room in a farm cottage, but there was no privacy.  The only washing facility was in the kitchen which we shared with the family."
V.E. Day
"For me my war had ended. For my family it was not a day  for celebration,  but a time for reflection and remembrance of  my brother who had been killed in action" 

Postscript  
"In Earlston, I met my husband who was home on leave.  We married in 1948 and  Earlston has been my home now for 70 years". 


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NOTES:
The Women's Land Army  was a British civilian organisation,  created during the First and Second World Wars,  to recruit  women to  work in agriculture, replacing men called up to the armed forces.  At first volunteers were sought. but  numbers  were increased by conscription.   By 1944 the Women's Land Army  had over 80,000 members across Britain.   It was officially disbanded in 1949.
 
A World War One Land Girl
 
On the left - A Land Girl in the Second World War
with an Air Raid Warden on the right.  (Not Earlston) 
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Do you have any war memories, or ones passed down to you from your parents or grandparents.  If so, do please get in touch, as we would like to hear from you. 
E-Mail:  auldearlston@aol.com

Tuesday 12 June 2018

More Memories of Earlston People and Places

INTRODUCTION
The West End of Earlston,  Haughhead and Craigsford, Thomas Weatherly, stationer & printer, John Gray, photographer, Dr. Robert Riddell and the well known Whale Family - they all feature in this the second of two posts on the memories of the Rev. William Crockett (1866-1945). 

Part One of Rev. Crockett's memories you will find  HERE. 


William Shillinglaw Crockett was born in Earlston in 1866.  On leaving school, he worked as an apprentice chemist in the village, before training in Edinburgh for the Church.  He spent most of his ministry in Tweedsmuir, Peeblesshire and was a prolific writer of  many publications on Borders life and literature. 


William Crockett never forgot his birthplace and in  a series of articles, written between 1937 and 1942 for  local magazines, he gives us a picture of Earlston life, people and places, with snippets from his pen  highlighted below. He died in 1945 and was buried in Earlston Churchyard.   

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THE WEST TOUN END 
"This is the most ancient part of Earlston,  for long it remained as a little village of its own - a community in itself.  Its weavers' cottages, its crofts, its gardens of beauty, were just an ideal old fashioned hamlet in days gone by.   Now of course, everything is changed.

Who ever heard today of "The Acre Barn" , that so popular rendezvous  for dances, kirns and penny-weddings, at which a plate w
as passed around to pay expenses with a gift for the bride.

One place I remember well was Mag Forrest's tramps' howff,  scene of many a grim fight or drunken  brawl.

In a house behind the White Swan (once the Beehive) pend, Thomas Bayley, who had lost a leg in the *Peninsular Campaigns,  taught his small "side school", one of many in Earlston then.  And in it Robert Carter  of New York, founder of  of the most famous bookshop in America,  began life as a teacher."



 West End, c. early 1900's


HAUGHHEAD CORNMILL "functioned  as such from a remote period .....for generations it was occupied by the Shields, a notable family in the district of whom came  Alexander (born 1661) and  Michael,  both  valiant heroes of the *Covenant.....Both brothers joined the *Second Darien Expedition  in 1699 and they never again saw Leaderside, perishing amidst the hardships of that ill-fated adventure."  
 The site of Haughhead Mill, June 2018

CRAIGSFORD  was a sort of village in itself in those distant days,with a row of cottages, beginning  with that in which James Blaikie lived. 



"A ravine of the burn hard by - the Clattering Ford,  was used  by the body snatchers,  of Burke and Hare  time, for concealment of newly buried corpses  taken from the kirkyard.  Here it is said that the body of Nance Kerss lay before it came into the hands of the notorious Dr. Knox.  When the alarm was raised, David Walker, the parish  schoolmaster and another  Earlstonian  were sent to  identify  the body at the Surgeon's Hall, Edinburgh,  "Eh, Nance, Nance", said the latter, "Ye never thocht ye wad ever be in Edinburgh".

THOMAS WEATHERLY
"A printer from Berwick, he migrated to the west of the shire (about 70 years ago) and had his  stationer's and bookseller's shop on the High Street. 
Weatherly's enterprise took him into the publishing and  newspaper field, with an eight page weekly "The Border Beacon",  followed by a second, having the rather high sounding title "The South of Scotland Live Stock Journal".  I fancy that very few, if any copies,  have survived, apart from those I have myself kept  in file those many years.  As Weatherly discovered, Earlston was scarcely the place  for a successful venture into the journalistic sphere
 

In the 1901 census, John P. Weatherly was described as a 40 years old Postmaster of 73 High Street, living with his wife, mother-in-law and  children Edward, Ellen and Margaret.  The Trade Directory two years later adds to his role that of bookseller, stationer, and printer. 

JOHN GRAY, PHOTOGRAPHER 
"A printer and photographer, he was the first to popularise this art in Earlston, especially with his carte de visite  portraits. which had wide vogue at that time."
 
This photograph came into the Auld Earlston collection and was identified on the reverse as David Swanston, Post Runner, here adverting the business of James Gray, photographer in the Square.  It is one of the oldest photographs in the group's collection, as David died in 1874.  

 DR. ROBERT RIDDELL
"Here was  a man skilled in diagnosis, a very capable servant, responsive to every phase of human distress. Even if (because of his slightly humped back),they spoke of him as  "Humpy"  Riddell, it was never with any feeling of disrespect.The doctor was endowed with a big brain;  poor people said he had a heart of gold. He showed his queer habits on occasions   - a street fight fascinated him for instance.  Dr  Riddell believed in prayer and once told the minister "I always pray before I start an operation."   

THE WHALE FAMILY
"Two of Andrew Whale's sons cut notable figures in active manhood - Lancelot, Rector of the Grammar School in Kelso, where Sir Walter Scott was his most eminent pupil;  and Thomas,   originator of an enterprise which gave to his native town, a prime distinction  in the realm of commerce - the gingham industry.
It is safe to say that no article of wearing apparel  was so fashionable  in its time. Over 140 hand looms (mostly in private houses)  in Earlston and the surrounding area wer engaged in the  manufacture of these finely woven and cotton fabrics.   They were worn by all classes and in every quarter.
Much of the prosperity of the trade - and indeed its high watermark - indeed, came after Whale's day, when his two daughters - Marion and Christian succeeded to the business, extending  clientele  throughout many parts of England - and even exporting their wares across the Atlantic.
Rhymer's Lands (some nine and a half acres) was acquired by those two enterprising women, Christian and Marion Whale, of gingham celebrity. by purchase from Dr. Francis  Home of Cowdenknowes. In 1842 they rebuilt the mill on its present site,  the old structure having been destroyed by fire the previous year."




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EXPLANATORY NOTES
* Peninsular Campaigns 
The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was a military conflict between Napoleon's empire (as well as the allied powers of the Spanish Empire), the United Kingdom and  Portugal, for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars.


* Covenanters were people in Scotland who signed the National Covenant in 1638 to confirm their opposition to the interference by the Stuart kings in the affairs of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

*The Darien Scheme  was Scotland's ambitious attempt to become a world trading nation by establishing a colony called "Caledonia" on the isthmus of Panama on the Gulf of Darien  in the late 1690s. Thousands of ordinary Scots  invested money in the expedition, to the tune of approximately £500,000. Five  ships sailed from Leith in July 1698 with 1,200 people on board. 

But  the project was beset by poor planning and provisioning, divided leadership and finally disease. 
Seven months after arriving, 400 Scots were dead.   More ships set sail from Leith in November 1699 loaded with a further 1,300  pioneers,unaware of the fate of the earlier settlers. The colony  was finally abandoned in 1700 after a siege by Spanish forces, 


Only one ship returned out of the total of sixteen that had originally sailed.  With the  loss of the £500,000 investment,  the Scottish economy was almost bankrupted. 


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SOURCES:
  • The Rhymer's Town:  Some Notes on Earlston's Past, by Dr. W.S.Crockett. In "The Southern Annual: 1937. 
  • The Rhymer's Town:  More  Notes on Earlston's Past, by Dr. W. S. Crockett.  In "The Southern Annual:1941. 
  • The Rhymer's Town:  Further Notes on Earlston's Past, by Dr. W. S. Crockett. In "The Southern Annual:1942. 
  • The Rev. W. S. Crockett:  Preacher and Litterateur (interview and biographical notes), by John North. In "Border Magazine" July 1905.
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Do you have memories of growing up in Earlston or 
know stories passed down by your parents or grandparents.  
If so, we would like to hear from you.  
 E-mail: auldearlston@aol.com

Wednesday 18 April 2018

Memories of Earlston People & Places, by Rev. William Crockett. (1866-1945)

  INTRODUCTION
William Shillinglaw Crockett was born in Earlston in 1866, the youngest child of William Crockett and Margaret Wood.   On leaving school, he worked as an apprentice chemist in the village, before training in Edinburgh for the Church.  He spent most of his ministry in Tweedsmuir, Peeblesshire and was a prolific writer of  many publications on Borders life and literature. 


William Crockett never forgot his birthplace and in  a series of articles he wrote for local magazines, he gives us a picture of Earlston life, with snippets from his pen  highlighted below. He died in 1945 and was  buried in Earlston Churchyard.  

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EARLY LIFE
"My father conducted the postal affairs of the parish and district until his death in 1872.  Dauvit Swanson ran the outgoing mail to Melrose  twice daily, bringing back the incoming mail, my father delivering  the letters around the town.   Dauvit Trotter was the country runner  with whom I (a little lad) was often taken in his crudely built pony-trap  to Morriston and Legerwood. He had been a joiner and had had a bad accident to his left hand, necessitating immediate amputation, performed (without anasthetic) by Dr. Riddell.  
"In 1870 the telegraph was introduced.  An official from Edinburgh taught my father the manipulation of the old Morse instrument. The trial messages  were frequently news of the Franco-Prussian War  then raging.  This was my furthest back recollection". 
 "I went to Earlston School when I was four years old.  Mr Daniel Aitkenhead was the teacher, one of the best of the "old Scottish parochial" who has done, perhaps more than any other tvo mould the Scottish character that has so many admirers over all  the world.  He was a strict disciplinarian and many a good round of the tawse I have had from him" 
I left school when I was fifteen years old and was keen to become a medical missionary. For four years I was apprenticed to a chemist and had the ignominious fate of being plucked more than once for what was chiefly my bad handwriting.  I suppose then I was a "stickit druggist”. At last, I turned my back on the chemist's  life and entered Edinburgh University".

THE SQUARE
"Earlston must always be proud of its Square - the centre and heart of the little town.  Around its ancestral green, laid down when   the place became a burgh of barony  in the time of James IV, the village saw its row of thatched cottages springing up  until a complete square was formed and fairs were the order  of the day.   Robert Burns  was here in 1787, when he dined at an inn kept by a miller."
"On the Corn Exchange site  stood a two-storied inn, tenanted by James Shiels, who moved into "The Swan"  a few yards from his door and renamed it "The Red Lion"  with a flamboyant representation of the Lion Rampant as his sign."
"If the Pump Well  of 1815 was a bit of an eyesore to the moderns, it had happy memories to the boys and girls who gambolled round its old grey stones, and who jumped the "poles"  which then circled the Green".


 
The Old  Pump Well in Earlston's Market Square.    
The Well was demolished  in 1920 to make way for the War Memorial.

 
"Poles" around the Square 


"Aitkenhead's School  was just across the Square,  and out of its unforgettable walls, the Co-operators constructed  their emporium."


THE WEST END 
"What is now New Street and Arnot Place  was open ground - little more than a broad  green meadow stretching  up from the Leader and known as "Wilson's Lands”. In olden times it went but a short distance to the Leader.

Arnot Place was named after Margaret Arnot,  wife of Thomas Kerr of Craighouse,  who came to reside in Earlston after her husband's death.  She built the house in New Street  known as Kinneswood.  I recollect  her well - a tall masculine  looking woman,  kenspeckle in her always sombre garb of widowhood with  its white streamers waving in the wind. What a deep voice she had!" 


 
Arnot Place,  on the A68 road, in the 1930's. 
 "The Black Bull Inn was the first house on the present long  street, with the Manse opposite, built in 1814 - restored since.  Thorn House was built by John Spence, a Melrose lawyer. 


New Street/Thorn Street, with Thorn House on the corner
"Kirkgate  (very ancient people called it the Kidgate) was by far the prettiest In part of Earlston with its thatched cottages  and gardens of delicious  blooms"


Copyright © A R Edwards and Son,  Selkirk.    (Cathy Chick Collection).   
All Rights Reserved

 TRAVEL AROUND EARLSTON
"Until the coming of the railway in 1863, there were few comings and goings between  the nearest towns in the neighbourhood  and to the vast majority of inhabitants Edinburgh was a veritable 'terra incognita".
 Earlston Station
"The making of new and better highways  within the Tweed and Leader valleys, as well as the completion,  by way of Mellerstain Estate,  of a more direct route to Kelso were other happy undertakings which opened up the district to commerce and travel.   Such roads that had  existed before were so poorly surfaced, hilly and winding that one wonders that they had ever been conceived of." 
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TO FOLLOW:
Further snippets of William Crockett' s memories will focus on People, including the Whale Family of Earlston Gingham fame, James Gray, photographer, and Dr. Riddell. 

SOURCES:

  • The Rhymer's Town:  Some Notes on Earlston's Past, by Dr. W.S.Crockett. In "The Southern Annual: 1937. 
  • The Rhymer's Town:  More  Notes on Earlston's Past, by Dr. W. S. Crockett.  In "The Southern Annual:1941. 
  • The Rhymer's Town:  Further Notes on Earlston's Past, by Dr. W. S. Crockett. In "The Southern Annual:1942. 
  • The Rev. W. S. Crockett:  Preacher and Litterateur (interview and biographical notes), by John North. In "Border Magazine" July 1905.


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Thursday 25 January 2018

Childhood Escapades in Earlston

 John Moffat  (1919-2016) spent his early childhood in Earlston in the 1920's  where his father Peter, opened the village’s first garage.    John was an adventurous little boy, always getting into scrapes, which he recalled in his biography “How I Sank the Bismarck”.  In the Second World War, he  became a lieutenant commander pilot in the  Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm and was involved in the attack on the German battleship. 

Business  in Earlston
"My father's garage  was located next to the [West End}  church  and  on the other side of the road was the local bakers and next to that the public house {Black Bull}.  The bakers was an attractive place for a young boy,  with its iced buns and doughnuts in the window.  I was allowed to go down to the cellar where the dough was mixed  in large tubs, then cut up into portions  to be baked into rolls and bread.
 Looking west from the Square

There was almost no motor traffic
in Earlston, and the roads were covered in layers of stone chip spread over hot tar. The Council road workers came every year to renew the surface.  Piles of grit and barrels of tar were left by the side of the road, ready to be used.  Somehow I managed to get into one of these barrels and cried for help.  My father rescued me and  and dragged  me into the garage where he cleaned me up with paraffin.

My father's business prospered .  The garage was usually busy, as cars and  buses were starting to replace horse drawn vehicles. I enjoyed loitering in the area and became fascinated by engines and anything mechanical.   My father bought a chassis from Albion, lorry manufacturer in Glasgow,  and had the local  joiner  build a charabanc body on it. It was the first  bus to operate in Earlston  and was often hired out to  local clubs and church groups for excursions or picnics.  The wheels still had wooden spokes and rims, like the horse drawn carts,   On very hot days, the wood would dry out and shrink, so the driver had to carry a bucket of water  to keep the wood wet and prevent the wheels collapsing."

Fairs in the Square
 "Earlston like many Scottish towns was built around a large open square. Here each year they had the Hirings in which farm workers from the surrounding area  would come,  hoping to find employment for the next 12 months.  It was a giant annual labour exchange  and it could be a desperate time for people.  Rural areas saw a great deal of poverty. 
A Hiring Fair in the 1930's

"The Square was also the site of a yearly  summer fair  and then it would be filled with all kinds of sideshows and entertainers - fire eaters, jugglers and boxing booths. The arrival of the fair always brought great excitement. Steam driven tractors would haul wagons into the Square and would be set up to drive roundabouts and steam organs."

A Wedding Custom
"Entertainment was by and large a communal affair.  I loved to watch weddings.  The groom would have purchased a rugby ball from the local  saddler.  After the marriage ceremony, the groom would kick the ball  as hard and as high as he could.  This was a sign for the men to rush  after it, and try to grab it.  The struggle could go on to  dusk, it was taken very seriously. There was no prize for this -  gaining the ball was the end in itself."

A Walk to Cowdenknowes
"I wandered far and wide with Wiggy, my pet terrier My favourite walk was to the large house of Cowdenknowes.  I was always welcome at the gardener's cottage on the estate  where there was always something fresh to eat  - a piece of cake from the oven or an apple from the orchard." 

The Appeal of the Railway
"I also used to wander off to the railway station.  The porter there was also called Moffat, though I was not aware of any family connection.  The train drivers and firemen on the local route soon got to know me.   I found the steam trains enthralling - belching steam and smoke, shrieking and clanking as they pulled to a halt, then heaving away, gathering speed.  The crews were willing to  let me ride on the footplate and it was a regular occurrence for me to ride the four miles south to Newtown St. Boswells and back. It was enormously exciting , with the heat from the firebox, the  gleaming brass levers and dials , the smell of hot oil and smoke  - and me in the  company of the overalled men in charge of this monster." 

 Two trains in Earlston Station
Copyright © A R Edwards and Son,  Selkirk.    (Cathy Chick Collection).   All Rights Reserved


A Spell  in the Cells
"One day |  got into my head to visit a good friend of my grandfather , a man called Mr Deans, pub  landlord of the Black Bull in Lauder.   I hopped on a local bus and hid beneath a seat.  But someone must have seen me  and told my parents.  My father clearly thought this was the  last straw and telephoned the local constable in Lauder, and this fine fellow was waiting for me.  I can still see him with  his  blue cape, his helmet and a fierce  waxed moustache. Towering over me, he grabbed me by the ear and none too gently marched  me off to the police station, up the iron steps  to the front door.  There I was led to the cells.   I am sure my distress took the edge off my father's anger when he came to take me home."
Crashing the  Doctor's  Car  
"About 1925, my father sold Dr. Young a new car a Model T. Ford,   It  had been fitted with what was then a very modern invention  - an electric  starter button as an alternative to cranking the engine  over by hand with a starting handle.   Motor cars were still a novelty in those days, and I was fascinated by the concept of the electric  starter button.

One day the doctor's pristine black Ford was parked outside the big grocer's shop in the Square.  I took the opportunity to clamber up into it and pressed firmly on the starter button. To my utter surprise,  the car  leapt forward and smashed into the plate glass windows of the grocer's shop.  There was utter chaos.   The shop assistants were screaming, people all around rushed to see what had happened - all this accompanied by my shock and tears  at the realisation of the trouble I was in. Then the doctor and my father added to the tumult. My father treated me very sternly.  I was forbidden treats and was told I must stay indoors. "


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Soon after.  John Moffat's family left Earlston and moved  near Gateshead,  returning after a few years to Kelso.

Auld Earlston is very grateful to Mr Scott Aiton  and especially to Pat Stirling, John Moffat's  daughter who gave permission to quote from her father's book, for which she holds the copyright. 

Photographs are from the Auld Earlston Collection